Top seed Pradhan sails into quarters

Top seed Abhishek Pradhan of Maharashtra recorded back to back wins to advance into the men's quarter-finals of the 4th NSCI All India Open Squash Tournament on Sunday.

The pony-tailed Pradhan, ranked fifth in the country, proved too good for Rajasthan's Chetan Singh Rathore and easily coasted to a 11-4, 11-3, 11-4 win in just 15 minutes in a second round match.

Later in the third round he faced quite a challenge from Ajit Sharma of Services and had to bring out his best to clinch a 11-9, 11-7, 11-7 win in about 30 minutes.

Sharma had earlier recovered from a 1-2 deficit to narrowly win the last two games against Maharashtras Shashi Pandey for a 11-9, 5-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-9 victory.

Results: Men's (second round): Abhishek Pradhan beat Chetan Singh Rathore 11-4 11-3 11-4; Ajit Sharma beat Shashi Pandey 11-9 5-11 3-11 11-8 11-9; Abhinav Sinha beat Yashraj Bhargava 11-3 11-2 11-2; Sandeep Jangra beat Rahil Fazelbhoy 11-8 11-6 11-4; Puneet Pareek beat Vaibhav Chauhan 11-8 ...